Apple Mac Mini • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Mac Mini

#131

Post by 4ad » Sat, Oct 18, 2014, 9:54 AM UTC

oso2k wrote: post #127

4ad wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me put it this way. If I do a pkgsrc bulk build, what do I build it on? Previously there was the XServe platform that I could have in a rack along my other infrastructure. They ditched that. The old MacPro's you could install in a rack, though they were massively overpriced for what it was a purely CPU-bound job. Now the new MacPro's are not rackable any more. Mac Mini's were never great, but they were cheap enou…

Again, you're missing the point. Mac's are built for workstation style development. The distributed, shared infrastructure that's en vogue today isn't a factor if you're building iOS & OSX apps. And, if you dedicate the time and infrastructure, you can build those up to stronger processes with Xcode and it's distcc.

And where does the software that powers the workstations come from? Out of thin air? Where do you compile it? I am not talking about iOS and OS X bundles, I am talking about fundamental Unix system software (which pkgsrc provides). And what if you do continuous integration? Where do you run that?

Lately I've been playing with a setup that builds a cross-clang on FreeBSD to cross-compile OS X software using the libraries inside the XCode sdks. The setup itself is working reasonably well, but most autoconf scripts don't work well with cross-compilers, so it's not workable for pkgsrc right now (though it is workable for my own C software). Unfortunately, this would not help with integration testing...

Re: Apple Mac Mini

#132

Post by jrochkind1 » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 8:22 PM UTC

personZ wrote: post #26

jrochkind1 wrote: post #17

Not a bad price until you see it costs $300 to go from 4GB RAM to 16GB RAM. Do these have user-upgradeable RAM? I can buy RAM a lot cheaper than that.

It looks like the physical design is the same as the late 2012, which on mine has a screw top "bottom" (until moments ago I had it upside down...always thinking that screen top was the top) that reveals a couple of so-dimm ports. I am extremely surprised they didn't go Broadwell given that Intel is just starting to put those out in volume.

These guys say it actually looks like soldiered-on RAM, as well as 'tamper-resistant' screws. Bastards.

Re: Apple Mac Mini

#133

Post by greglindahl » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 11:19 PM UTC

IbJacked wrote: post #130

greglindahl wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the design seems to have stayed the same as the previous generation: Yes, but you have to take the entire thing apart to get to the drive, and the parts are laptop parts so they're kind of finicky. iFixit is your friend. The RAM, on the other hand, is extremely easy to change out.

Unfortunately, the RAM on the new models is soldered on. Someone above said the drive is soldered, too, but I can't confirm that.

You are correct, that news trickled out after I wrote my comment :-/

Re: Apple Mac Mini

#134

Post by dirtae » Mon, Oct 20, 2014, 10:01 PM UTC

bronson wrote: post #123

dirtae wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't tax the CPU, but you want to pay an extra $200 for a build-to-order option to bump the CPU by 0.2 GHz? How about getting the mid-tier 2.6 GHz Mac mini, with 16 GB RAM, 1 TB Fusion Drive, keyboard, and trackpad for $1,237? Then you'll be saving an additional $300, for a total of $563 in savings. If you want to save a little more, don't buy additional memory from Apple, buy it from Crucial or another vendor i…

All true, except the 2014 Mini has the RAM soldered down. Buy it with the memory you think you'll need.

Ah, you're right. I saw that the enclosure was the same (or at least nearly the same) as the old Mac mini and assumed you could replace the RAM yourself, but I was wrong. That's a shame.